No, this won’t be the final word on gun control, but it will have to do–for now. Or until the Roseburg, Ore., sequel. What a coincidence that both Christopher Harper-Mercer, the most recent killer to dominate a news cycle, and the late Adam Lanza of Newtown, Conn., infamy, had something in common besides being unhinged loners who mass murdered with guns. They both lived at home with their mothers whose households included an arsenal of guns.
There’s enabling–and then there’s housing an arsenal for your disturbed kid. Plus, both moms used target shooting as bonding exercises.
The overriding issue remains our gun culture–and delusional obeisance to the Second Amendment despite its self-evident, 18th century militia context. The enemy is not King George. It’s cherry-picking faux patriots, a portable stand-your-ground credo and “Live Free or Die” perversion.
And, BTW, for all those households with defend-the-castle guns: the overwhelming majority of gun-related deaths are those of family members and friends–not intruders. The law of unintended consequences has never been repealed.